On Friday the day finally came when I got to meet #TheoPaphitis!
I had understandably been excited about this for some time, he was my favourite dragon when he was in the Dragons Den and seemed to be genuinely interested in supporting small businesses. Well, that’s how Friday came about.
Small Business Sunday
Theo runs a Small Business Sunday award on Twitter, he started this 10 years ago after realising just how powerful a tool twitter could be for small businesses and how a retweet could gain reach, potentially sales and contacts that otherwise would be unreachable.
400,000 entries
Over the 10 years Small Business Sunday or #SBS has had over 400,000 applications and 3000 winners so I am pleased to say that I fall into the 1% of entries who make Theo’s cut!
There were some interesting stats at the event on Friday like how 75% of SBS winners are female despite Twitter users being more dominantly male, this isn’t actively encouraged it just happens that the female business owners have won more, nothing to do with positive discrimination!
Speakers and Workshops
There were several talks on the day including lots of advice from Theo himself but aside from Theo my favourite chat was the ‘Fireside chat’ between Theo and Sara Davies MBE. Sara is the newest (and youngest) Dragon and had a truly inspiring story and down to earth manner that endeared her to all in the room.
What happens after SBS?
Of these there were plenty of business tips and as usual the reality of implementing them comes back to “not enough time” but I will take away many gems from the event and would encourage you if you have a small/medium sized business to take a look at Twitter and the #SBS community and have a look at entering for yourself.
You never know where winning SBS may take you. My award was nearly a year ago and not long after winning, I used the #SBS on Linkedin. From this I was invited to become a food judge at The Nourish Awards and am taking that relationship even further this year in some exciting news to be launched soon.
Today it’s back to reality but I have a nice certificate signed from Theo and some photos with the man himself, not only that as an #SBS winner I get to go to the winners event every year and remain part of an exclusive community, now that’s worth shouting about!
About me
My message is to promote awareness of the food and #health link rather than following campaigns that could be misleading. If you would like further information on how I work then take a look at the following links :)
Not Your Average Weight Loss Course
This course helps you understand #obesity as a medical combination of issues, I do not simply tell you to eat less and move more! It helps you understand #emotional eating, the truth about diets and what every-day steps you can take.
Family Health, Nutrition Support Course
For more of a 1:1 service I do have a modular family health online course. There's more information on this below.
Once you join a course you then get access to a closed Facebook group and a monthly webinar with me.
I look forward to supporting you & hope to see you soon.
Louise Mercieca
Nutritional Therapist
Personal Trainer
Award-winning Author
Food writer
Presenter on Early Years TV Food
Keynote speaker
www.thehealthkick.co.uk